India re-opens Kashmiri schools while curfew continues

By Zahid Rafiq

SRINAGAR, Indian-held Kashmir (AA) – Indian authorities have ordered schools in four districts of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) to re-open Thursday despite a strict curfew remaining in place while an ongoing protest shutdown imposed by Kashmir's pro-independence leadership has also continued.

Given ongoing heightened tensions, which have seen more than 45 civilians killed over two weeks, many Kashmiris voiced concerns about sending their children to school, claiming they are being used as "human shields" against protestors.

“All of Kashmir is on a strike. There is curfew everywhere. Four people, including two women, have been killed in firing by the Indian soldiers in the last four days. The phones are not working, the Internet is blocked and they want us to send our children to schools!” said Bilal Ahmad, a bank manager from Budgam, one of the four districts where the schools have been ordered to re-open. “This is the most ludicrous and insensitive thing the government could have done.”

Ahmad told Anadolu Agency there were more than 12 school-age children in his family but none of them would go to the schools on Thursday.

“Who is responsible if anything happens to my children?” Ahmad asked.

The order to open the schools was issued by the government on Wednesday and according to a teacher working in one of the government schools in the four districts, the teachers were also told to resume duties.

Despite the order to open schools, the Jammu & Kashmir state police on Thursday afternoon issued a statement confirming there would be no relaxation in the curfew "across Kashmir" during the day.

Scores of police vehicles drove around the region announcing that a curfew was in place and no one should leave their homes.

It came in contrast to calls by the pro-independence leadership, known as the Hurriyat, for a relaxation in the shutdown from 2pm Thursday to allow people to stock on essential supplies after they called for the strike to be extended to July 25.

The region's civil society have also slammed the government decision, claiming it was a sign of government "callousness and disregard for the life of Kashmiri children."

“In many places in south Kashmir, the Indian paramilitary forces caught hold of young boys and tied them to poles outside their camps to stop the people from throwing stones. That is a human shield,” claimed Khurram Parvez, coordinator at the Coalition of Civil society in IHK and chairman of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances.

“Now the government has decided to use the school children as human shields by putting them in buses and on streets to schools. This is the height of callousness,” Parvez told Anadolu Agency.

At least 46 Kashmiri civilian protestors have been killed and over 2,000 wounded in firing by the Indian armed forces on protests that were triggered by the killing of Kashmiri militant commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani in a gun-battle earlier this month.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.

The two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.

Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in IHK have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

More than 70,000 people have reportedly been killed in the conflict so far, most of them in Indian Armed force’s counter insurgency operations. India maintains more than half a million troops in the disputed regions.